**2. The production of sugarcane bagasse globally (producing countries)**

Sugarcane bagasse originates from Asia and can be found mostly in tropical and subtropical climates [1]. For instance, *Saccharum spontaneum* is endemic in the wild from eastern and northern Africa, through the Middle East, to India, China, Taiwan and Malaysia through the pacific to the New Guinea. Globally (mostly in Latin America and Asia), the production of sugarcane bagasse was approximately 1900 million metric in the past 5 years. Brazil is by far the world's largest sugarcane producer with around 740 million ton cane crushed in the 2010/2011 harvest season, which is about 43% of the global production. **Table 1** summarizes the sugarcane crop production in selective countries between years 2009 and 2013. Brazil is also the largest exporter of ethanol, and it is widely expected that Brazil has a large potential for growth in the next decades. At the sugar mills, bagasse has been used to fuel the boilers that supply the thermal and electrical power needed for the internal processes of the sugar mills.

Columbia has been producing sugarcane and palm oil since the early 1900s. Most of Colombia sugarcane bagasse plantations are situated around the Cauca River Valley, and grow the whole with the potential to produce 950,000 ld−1 of ethanol from sugarcane juice. There are approximately more than 20,000 registered sugarcane growers regions in South Africa which include the province of KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape. The majority of sugarcane


**Table 1.** Sugarcane production from different countries between 2009 and 2013 [1, 8–10].

crop is grown in the highest latitude in the country which is in KwaZulu-Natal. India is one of the largest producers of sugar in the world and is the world's second largest producer next to Brazil of sugarcane. Its cane is normally planted throughout 3 seasons in the northwest region of the country. Previously Cuba used to be one of the largest sugar exporters in the world until it was hit by commercial trade blockage 4 decades ago [1, 8–10].
